Men's Tennis

Gauchos Eliminated at SoCal Intercollegiate to End Preseason Tournament Play

Axel Bouillin (Photo by Tony Mastres)

Nov 10, 2012

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – After a busy day at the courts, the Gauchos were eliminated from the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships after reaching the quarterfinals in singles and doubles play Friday.

USCB had players competing in the singles main draw, main draw back draw, and the main doubles draw.

Benjamin Recknagel, who has been playing well this fall, dropped his match to USD's Clarke Spinosa 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in the main draw, falling just short of making the semifinals and ending UCSB's hopes for a singles title as he was the only Gaucho left in the main draw.

In the singles consolation bracket, Mbonisi Ndimande and Ziad Sultan both played Saturday. Ndimande was defeated by Big West rival Marco Comuzzo of Cal Poly 6-2, 7-6. Sultan was able to make the semifinals after posting a comeback win over Guy Giubilato of UCSD by a score of 3-6, 6-2, 10-1 but then lost his next match to APU's Jochem Hoefnagels in a close match 6-3, 6-7, 10-5.

The Gauchos also played in the doubles main draw Saturday and both UCSB duos lost to tandems from USD. The No. 4- seed of Ndimande and Sultan lost 9-7 to USD's Romain Kalaydjian and Victor Pugliese in the quarterfinal round. Bouillin and Recknagel moved onto the semifinals due to a withdrawal by their opponent but lost to the third ranked duo of Clarke Spinosa and Thibaut Visy of USD 8-0.

UCSB's elimination ends their preseason tournament play. The Gauchos will be back in action for dual matches beginning January 16th against Westmont.
Saturday's Results